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Congratulations Mr Fry

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The nation’s honorary Uncle figure has announced that he is to marry his partner Elliott Spencer. It’s great to read a positive headline about Mr Fry as too often he has had us worried with his suicide attempts, darker moments and removing himself from public life.

It’s refreshing to see he’s so happy and after spending most of the last couple of months in bed with him every night (reading his three volumes of autobiography) and endless episodes of both old and new QI, you can tell it’s something he needs in his life. We feel as a nation that we know him, but we don’t really. That doesn’t mean that we aren’t terribly fond of the old fellow though.

I grew up watching him lark around with his colleague Hugh on “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” as well as “Jeeves and Wooster” and even then he became a firm favourite. Reading his books opened him up in a way I didn’t expect – he is brutally honest about his experiences and also very harsh on himself too, which just goes to show that even at the top of your game you still have the same fears and worries about your looks, talents and abilities.

He speaks very openly about how his heart was taken at a very young age by a fellow schoolboy and how that relationship had repercussions throughout most of his young life. His openness about his sexuality means that you forget it’s even an issue but it’s his honesty about his issues with depression that resonated with me most.

I remember watching his series “The Secret life of the manic-depressive” which opened my eyes and mind to a world I had never understood, but knew I lived in. This was around 2008 and less than a year later I went to the doctor to speak about my own issues. The show continued to echo in my thoughts and I knew last year that there was more to be discussed and discovered because my behaviour and mind-set weren’t right. Thanks in large part to that series and the honesty in which Stephen Fry spoke about his illness.

Because of this, his great work as a writer and performer I truly hope he has found happiness and a person who he can lean on in those darker time to help and support him in a way that no-one but a partner really can.